Thursday, February 24th

Early Thursday morning, President Vladimir Putin gave a state address that horrified viewers across the world. He claimed that Russia was left with no choice but to launch an operation to demilitarize Ukraine. Russian troops quickly invaded the neighboring country.

“And to bring to court those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation,” Putin adds.

Ukrainian forces had a mere few minutes to process the news before the strikes began.

Russia invaded Ukraine with a series of missile strikes near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and long-range artillery near the border. The Russian army attacked mainly military bases and international airports but surrounding civilian towns were caught in the crossfire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to Putin’s speech with his own minute-long speech. He claimed to have spoken with US President Joe Biden.

Ukraine declared to have shot down 5 Russian aircraft, but Russia said they hadn’t lost any aircraft.

Many citizens fled Kyiv Thursday morning while others hid in subway stations.

Hours after the start of the invasion, Russian forces overtook Chernobyl.